News Release

The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has found no reasonable grounds to believe a Toronto Police Service (TPS) officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the shooting death of a 42-year-old man on August 13, 2022.

In the afternoon hours of this date, TPS officers were dispatched to a residence following a call by Toronto Fire Service firefighters who had become aware of a woman outside of a home with cuts to different areas of her body. The woman was with her child. Firefighters learned that the woman was attacked by her husband, and that he was still in the residence with another child. Feeling a growing urgency to enter the home to ensure the safety of the child, and after other methods were attempted, the decision was made to forcibly enter the residence. While police and firefighters tried to pry the front interior door open, the husband opened the door and presented himself with a knife. Officers yelled at the man to put down the knife. When the man stepped out through the threshold of the door, the knife in his right hand held over his head, he was met by gunfire by each of three officers. The man retreated back through the open door, but within a couple of seconds, he again approached the door with the knife still in hand.  He was told to “get on the ground” and was met by another barrage of shots by the officers as he continued to advance. The man collapsed on the porch and CPR was commenced. Paramedics transported the man to hospital where he was pronounced deceased.

Director Martino determined there were no reasonable grounds to believe that any of the officers comported himself other than within the limits of the criminal law when they fired their guns at the man. There was no basis for proceeding with charges in this case and the file has been closed.       

        

Full Director’s Report (with Incident Narrative, Evidence, and Analysis & Director’s Decision): https://www.siu.on.ca/en/directors_reports.php.